LRAB Chapter 14
Chapter 14
“Senior Catherine, hurry up! I’ve finished cutting the potatoes, so bring me a sack of onions next!”
“Yes, Miss Lilith!”
“Please stop with the formalities!”
This is what happens right after you realize that you’re running out of time and have made very little progress in the kitchen.
As soon as we realized the problem, we rushed to work, and Catherine and I busied ourselves in the kitchen, completing the remaining tasks as quickly as possible.
We had about 20 minutes left before the other senior maids were due to arrive.
Somehow, we had to get all the vegetables until dinner prepped in that time, so we didn’t have time to think about anything else.
In my frantic state of mind, I gathered up as much as I could and used my magic and skills to shred the vegetables.
One by one, the giant pots, each about a meter high, were filled with the vegetables that Catherine and I had prepped.
“How many minutes do we have left?!”
“Uh, about... ten minutes?!”
“Aaaaah, fuck!”
“Hey...!!”
The profanity was coming out of my mouth as I inadvertently forgot that I was Lilith, but my brain was too overloaded to care about that right now.
Triple casting takes a lot of brain power in the first place, and now I was doing it dozens of times over in an iterative process.
On top of that, I’m feeling dizzy from the damned garlic flavor in my mouth.
Normally, I would have rinsed my mouth out with Clean every now and then, but wasting spell counts on that was a luxury I couldn’t afford right now when I needed to chop more vegetables.
“Here, I’ve shaved all these carrots...! Then the onions are next, I’ll finish the garlic and potatoes, but you take care of the onions first!”
“Uh, yeah! Okay...!”
The good news is that Catherine’s work efficiency isn’t completely abysmal.@@@@
In fact, objectively speaking, she was actually quite fast. She could peel a single carrot at the same rate that I could triple-cast Clean and peel three potatoes.
I wondered why she had passed the work to me when she was so good at it in the first place, but I couldn’t waste my thoughts on that now.
All I could do was to trim as many vegetables as I could, as quickly as I could.
“How much more?!”
“Uh, what, what?! Hey, I’m just getting started with the onions...”
“Not that, I mean time, time!”
“Time?! Well, if it’s that bright...ah, maybe five minutes....”
“Oh shit, I’m going crazy!”
There was still almost a third of the work left to do, and at this rate, even if I died and woke up, it was impossible to finish it in the original time frame.
If I did, Ariana and Alicia, who had their work left to do much less than before, would be suspicious as to why I hadn’t finished it.
Add to that the fact that they would see me working on it myself, and the suspicion would only deepen.
Considering that I used to chop a day’s worth of vegetables in two hours every day, my realistic chopping speed was way behind even Catherine’s.
Still, we were able to cut the remaining workload by about a quarter, thanks to the two of us keeping busy in the remaining five minutes.
Still, it was unnerving to have this much work left to do.
If I had magic at my disposal, I could probably finish the remaining workload in about 10 minutes.
If I tried to do it without magic, it would take me almost two hours, and at this rate, the other senior maids would 100% question the work I’ve been doing.
At least Catherine’s stupid...no... she’s naive enough that I can fool her into thinking I’m a noble, but the other two bitches aren’t so easy...
...especially Ariana. If that cunning bitch found out I was using magic, I would be caught for my weakness, not for being a noble.
‘...So do you know what the bitch said then? She said that it wasn’t her.’
‘...You’re as stupid as ever.....’
“Uh, what should we do? I think Ariana and Alicia are about to enter the dining room!”
“.......”
...I heard them, I know, dammit.
The work I had left could be accomplished if I could somehow find ten minutes, no, five, to get it done.
It’s so ridiculously unfair that I’m getting caught for barely getting this much done.
If I could just buy a little more time, I’d be fine...
...even if it’s just five minutes, if I can somehow stop two people from coming into the kitchen...
“Uh, what do I do?! What do I do?!”
“.......”
What can I do?
...
This is still a pretty ugly situation, but I’ll take what I can get.
“Catherine, listen to me.”
“Huh?! Oh, no, what?!”
“Go to the kitchen door right now, and don’t let anyone in the kitchen for the next ten minutes.”
“Wait, you don’t want me to let anyone in?! Uhhhh, how do I do that?!”
“I don’t know. You can talk to them, argue with them, or take them somewhere else, but that’s up to you.”
A smug glare, as if she was already convinced beyond doubt.
As soon as she saw that look in Ariana’s eyes, Catherine finally realized something.
Unlike Alicia, Ariana had seen through her awkward act.
‘She knew it all along...!’
During that incident a year ago, and now.
Ariana was always one step ahead.
Catherine had been her servant for a year now, and she knew that better than anyone.
It had been foolish to try to deceive her in the first place.
“.......”
...Though, that didn’t change the fact that she had to keep Ariana out of the kitchen.
“Will you please step away from the door, Catherine? Lilith will be waiting for you inside.”
“.......”
“Hmm, that’s not fun.”
*SLAP*
*GASP*
“......!”
The slap came without warning, even though she had only been blocking the door for about three seconds.
The lack of hesitation startled both Catherine and Alicia.
Before they could take stock of the situation, Catherine’s other cheek was dyed red again by Ariana.
*SLAP*
*GASP*
“...I thought I said you’d be treated nicer, like my pet puppy, if you behaved.”
*SLAP*
“......Aghhh!”
“I haven’t been hitting you lately, so it’s been creeping up on me! After all, a bastard like you has to be beaten once every three days to obey me, right?!”
*SLAP*
“......!!!”
Catherine’s cheeks grew hotter and hotter as the palm moved back and forth.
However, she was filled with DETERMINATION *1, and somehow managed to keep the door to the kitchen from opening.
When she showed no sign of moving out of the way, Ariana’s kick hit Catherine at her side.
*POW*
“Ughhhh...!”
“Catherine, how far do you think you’re going with this?”
“No.... s-stop it.... please....”
“I’ll see you later, after work. It’s been a while, but let me remind you who your superior is again.”
After cleaning up Catherine’s mess on the prep room floor, she was about to yank open the kitchen door.
The dark-haired maid in the kitchen opened the door before she could and stepped out.
“.......”
“Lilith?”
“...Have you come to work, seniors?”
“Sorry, Lilith. We were going to leave early, but there was someone blocking the kitchen door, so it took us a while.”
“...I see.”
Lilith glanced out of the kitchen and into the prep room with a tired expression, only to find Catherine slumped on the floor, sobbing.
Her gaze flickered to Ariana’s slightly reddened palms.
“By the way, Lilith. Did you get your work done today?”
“.......yes.”
“You’re the most professional of us all, Lilith. I’m sorry we always seem to be having so much fun.”
“.......”
“Why aren’t you answering? Are you rebelling?”
The black-haired maid pretended not to have heard Ariana’s words and frowned as if she was pondering something.
Lilith, who had finally made her judgments about the events in front of her, met Ariana’s eyes and spoke quietly.
“...Ariana.”
“...Lilith? You’re a little short with words....”
“Keep your mouth shut, you fucking bitch.”
“Whaaaaat?!”
A heavy fist struck upward into the senior maid’s lower jaw with a dull thud.
Ariana was airborne for a moment.
T/N
sans undertale